Estonia has many digital service delivery lessons for Germany, says former govt CIO

Estonia has many lessons for countries such as Germany when it comes to introducing digital services. While 90 percent of Estonians use their national electronic identity to access government services, less than 10 percent of Germans do the same, according to Luukas Ilves, former chief information officer (CIO) for the Estonian government.

The reason behind such a difference in acceptance is the user-friendliness of Estonian software. Belgium, for instance, had previously used eID technology similar to Germany, with a similar acceptance rate of 10 to 20 percent. Following a switch to a more user-friendly platform, Itsme, e-ID use has skyrocketed to 80 percent, Ilves told Deutsche Welle.

Since leaving his position as Estonian government CIO and Undersecretary for Digital Transformation, Ilves has been working as an advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine. In May, he also authored a paper comparing Germany’s efforts to digitize public administration to those made by Baltic countries such as Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

In all three countries, governments have chosen to centrally organize and fund their digitalization efforts, allowing a high degree of coherence between silos.

“Core platforms for identity, data sharing, and a central government services portal are operated by a digital government agency,” says the paper. “Over time, these core platforms have offered a growing set of functionalities that reduce the cost to individual agencies of building new services, particularly useful for smaller public bodies with fewer resources and capacity.”

Among recommendations for Germany is extending German identity and data-sharing platforms to private and nonprofit domains. The German electronic ID card must be usable for everyday private transactions, such as banking and utilities, which will drive universal adoption. The government could also encourage or require major banks, insurers, telecoms and utilities to accept e-IDs.

Another task is standardizing data sharing, for which Estonia has developed X-Road. Public administrations should offer private companies the opportunity to exchange data using the protocols developed for inter-agency data sharing.

The study was published in May in collaboration with the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation, affiliated with Germany’s Free Democratic Party.

The changes could boost the use of government digital services in Germany: Only 62 percent of Germans use the services compared to 90 percent of Estonians. It could also help save money. The administrative cost of collecting taxes in Estonia is one-sixth of that in Germany per capita, according to Ilves.

Germany has already made some moves to cut its infamous bureaucracy. In April, its new coalition government pledged to continue digitizing public services and provide a digital identity to each citizen. This includes establishing a new Ministry of Digital and State Modernization.

Last year, the country’s federal government announced plans to introduce a state digital identity wallet as part of the EUDI Wallet scheme.

Estonia’s new digital ID app still finding foothold

Meanwhile, even Estonia seems to be struggling with making new digital ID technologies appealing.

Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR) found last week that not all private companies are accepting digital verification through the country’s digital government app Eesti.ee app, launched in December.

Earlier in July, the government launched an identity verification feature on the app, allowing service providers to treat digital documents such as biometric passports or national ID cards as equivalent to physical ones. Currently, however, there is no obligation for businesses to accept documents presented through smartphones.

According to the Information System Authority (RIA), businesses are likely reluctant to accept the new app due to its recent introduction. The app had reached only 52,000 downloads as of early July.

Estonia first introduced electronic ID cards in the early 2000s and has developed several authentication methods on top of it, including SIM-card-based Mobile ID and Smart-ID, a private application issued by SK ID Solution. Its latest solution is the Eesti.ee app.

Article Topics

digital government  |  digital ID  |  e-ID  |  EEsti.ee app  |  Estonia  |  Germany  |  government services